Erin Yogasundram, the founder of embattled teen online retailer Shop Jeen, has issued a statement after the company’s website was quietly taken down last week.
“The site is currently down due to some operational and financial difficulties due to a lot of growing pains,” said Yogasundram in a statement posted to Snapchat on May 20, several days after customers had started to complain about the missing website. “We made the decision to close the store temporarily and not take any more orders until we can work through these operational issues.”
“Please remember that we are not a massive corporation with millions in funding and a team of very experienced retail executives. We are and always have been a very small, young team that works very, very hard,” she continues. “I have sacrificed so much personally—I don’t really talk to my parents as much as I would like to.”
She notes that “we” (presumably Yogasundram and her partner Amelia Muqbal) had decided to “let go” of its office space and personal apartments and that they are couch-surfing with their friends.
In September, Jezebel reported on numerous vendors who complained of outstanding payments, unhappy customers who paid for goods that were never received, and poorly-treated employees in the company’s defunct New York office. Seeking a fresh start, the company relocated to Los Angeles late last year.
Yogasundram has learned a lot from her experience founding a business, she said in the statement, and as soon as the company is back on its feet she intends to find a medium to share that knowledge.
“It’s not about the fall; it’s about how you get back up, and, like, we have been through some shit,” she concluded. “We’re gonna get through this just like we’ve gotten through everything else.”